Throttled Three or Four Times | Portable Game On | Handheld Lover | Dot Whatever | Less Flash Happening.

.

Stories subject to change up until showtime

GUEST: Scott JohnsonLOWER THIRD URL: @scottjohnson

.

we've got executive musical chairs at barnes and noble, nintendo partners aren't happy with the wii u, and do we need top level domains for cities ?all that and more, next...

.

Today's date

.

This is 'Tech News Today' for Tuesday March 03 2015

.

Tech News Today is brought to you by

GoToMeeting with HD Faces, by Citrix - The powerfully simple way to meet and collaborate with colleagues and clients from anywhere. You can share the same screen and see each other face to face with HD Video conferencing – even from an iPad. Sign up for your 30-day FREE trial today. Visit gotomeeting.com, click on the Try It Free button, and use promo code TNT.

And by

Gazelle, the fast and simple way to sell your used gadgets! Find out what your used Samsung Galaxy, iPhone and other smartphones are worth at gazelle.com.

And by

proXPN (pro X-P-N). proXPN is a virtual private network that allows you to use the internet the way it should be: anonymously and without oversight! For 20% off your new account, go to proxpn.com/twit and use the code TNT.

we mentioned last week that Bluebox Security discovered a vulnerability in Android's security model that could allow attackers to convert 99 percent of all applications into Trojan malware. Google now tells ZDNet that the hole has been patched and that it has been released to (OEM)s.Bluebox Security CTO Jeff Forristal had said that this Master Key vulnerability has been "around at least since the release of Android 1.6, [and] could affect any Android phone released in the last four years — or nearly 900 million devices."

AllThingsD says that the rumored Microsoft managerial mixup will become official this Thursday. Insiders say that the goal is to create something called "functional coherence" at Microsoft and that Steve Ballmer has been taking advice from CEO of Ford Alan Mulally to set up the new Microsoft. The reports say Microsoft will be divided up by services and devices.

Barnes and Noble has announced that CEO William Lynch has resigned, effective immediately, as the company continues to “review its current strategic plan.” Lynch will be replaced by Michael P. Huseby, who had been the CFO and now has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of NOOK Media LLC and President of Barnes & Noble, Inc.Max J. Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble College, will continue to lead education, reporting to Huseby. Huseby and Mitchell Klipper, Chief Executive Officer of the Barnes & Noble Retail Group, will report directly to Leonard Riggio, Executive Chairman of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

The Justice Department says that the U.S. government is under no obligation to publish decisions made by the FISA court. The move is in response to a June lawsuit filed by the ACLU challenging the secret nature of the FISA court and its decisions. The Justice Department rejects the ACLU's first amendment argument and also says the ACLU has no standing to bring about a lawsuit.

DirecTV has made a bid for the online video service Hulu LLC, while Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) offered to acquire a stake in the company, people with knowledge of the situation said yesterday. Both suitors met a July 5 deadline for binding proposals set by Hulu’s board, said the anonymous people. The terms of the offers weren’t known. Hulu is owned by Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox Inc. and Comcast.

BGR says it has details about the next generation of Kindle Fire tablets. Every one of the tablets will see higher resolutions. The 7-inch Kindle Fire will get a 1280 x 800 display. The smaller HD tablet will get a 1900 x 1200 display, while the largest Kindle Fire HD will pack a 2560 x 1600 display in an 8.9-inch screen. The HD tablets will also get a redesign described as "chiseled" with changes to the button layout to avoid accidental inputs.

After years of debate, the French Government has finally backtracked on the law which allowed errant subscribers to be disconnected from the Internet. This morning a decision was published which removed the possibility for file-sharers to have their connections cut for copyright infringement. Instead, those caught by rightsholders will now be subjected to a system of automated fines.The so-called “graduated response” to the file-sharing issue has for years been backed by the mainstream music and movie industries.

The owners of Backflip Studios must be doing backflips because Hasbro just paid the company $112 million in cash to take a 70% stake in the mobile game maker. Backflip makes games like Paper Toss and NinJump. The company will continue to make their own games and they will also be making games using Hasbro brands like My Little Pony and Transformers. No word if they will combine titles with something like Paper Pony or Transformer Toss.

Nokia is dropping plans to market a tablet running the "lighter" version of Microsoft's Windows, Windows RT. earlier this year reports said Nokia had been working on two new tablet designs - one running the full Windows 8 for Intel processors and the other with Windows RT running on ARM-based chips. The Windows 8 project is supposedly still underway.The issue with Windows RT is that it can only run applications made for Windows RT, and none of the programs for Windows XP, Vista Windows 7 and 8 can be used. A version of Microsoft's Office suite is included on RT devices as standard equipment.

It only took Sprint three hundred years, but it finally owns 100% of Clearwire. Sprint's offer of $5 per share was accepted and the transaction closed today. The deal should help Sprint use Clearwire's spectrum to build out its LTE network.

- Cnet reports that Jimmy Iovine has been in talks with AT&T and the major music labels to bundle the Beats music service called Daisy with ATT data plans- Cnet speculates that you'd get a free trial with the hopes of getting people on board as subscribers- In the negotiations right now is how much free music to offer and who would eat the costs- Beats bought MOG (a music subscription service) and Iovine said that he plans to combine MOG with Beats to create Daisy- Daisy is supposed to powered by a mix of algorithms and curation by humans- Trent Reznor of NIN is the music service's chief creative officer.

Q: Okay, we've got Jimmy Iovine, Trent Reznor, MOG, and potentially ATT working together - can this service compete with all the other players? (Google, Apple, Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, Manny, Mo, and Jack)

- The Garmin HUD. $130. pairs with your smartphone running Garmin StreetPilot or Navigon GPS software via Bluetooth. sticks on your dash. Just like high-end HUDs, the information bounces off a transflective patch on the windshield.- Displayed information includes turn arrows, distance to the next turn, your speed, the speed limit, excessive speed, estimated time of arrival, and lane guidance (which lane for exits vs. through traffic). If you subscribe to premium services, you can also get traffic info and photo radar alerts.- Built-in HUDs also offer audio information, adaptive cruise control settings, a tachometer, and forward collision warning. Most are multi-color but not full-color, and most do not yet have the resolution to present a moving map, even if the automaker decided that it wouldn’t be too distracting.

q: nav is obvious, but what else should 3rd party HUDs offer & still be safe? texts? emails? neither?

- Yves Guillemot, chairman and CEO of Ubisoft told GamesIndustry.biz that their Wii U game ZombiU was not profitable. Not even close and there are no plans for a sequel.- It was because of this poor performance that Ubisoft decided to make Rayman Legends a multiplatform game- Activision was a launch partner for the Wii U, but CEO Eric Hirshberg says "we have no announcements now"- Peter Moore of EA says it has no games in development for the Wii U. EA doesn't like the lack of a rich multiplayer on the Wii U- Moore says ""The lack of online engagement that we see on Wii U [is troubling]," says Moore. "It's so integral to what we do. They're so small it's hardly worth running the servers." - Nintendo itself says it's making software development its primary focus.

- Today, on Laos’ behalf, URL registry GoDaddy began auctioning dozens of prime entertainment-themed Internet addresses ending in the newly available .LA suffix. The auction ends July 18. - some examples: comics.la, moviestars.la, producers.la, talentscout.la, screenwriter.la, studios.la, casting.la- Los Angeles- area companies and people – and possibly some in Louisiana — to sign up for a URL that’s more location specific than one ending in .com, godaddy VP of domains Richards Merdinger said. To further raise money, about 300 of the prime URLs have been set aside for an auction with several verticals, including the one for entertainment names, that GoDaddy is running.

- NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg tweeted: the top-level domain .nyc available later this year. will help local businesses' visibility in search results. "Businesses, organizations and residents" will be eligible for the TLD, with registration beginning in late 2013. When it launches, .nyc will be the first city in the United States to receive a geography-based domain.

- ATD: since Feb, Amazon testing a better way to watch Flash video content on a mobile device.some Kindle Fire owners seeing an option to use an “experimental streaming viewer” when trying to watch video on sites such as NBC.com, CBS.com and Fox.com.- Kindle Fire browser, known as Silk, divides work between the device and Amazon servers in the cloud. (opera does this too)- Adobe at one point supported Flash natively on Android devices, but pulled the plug a couple years back.- there's a need: In just the first month, Amazon said it streamed 1.4 million minutes worth of video — and that was with only a handful of sites enabled.

- can amazon keep flash alive? could amazon expand from video into Flash games or other content?

.

.

ia

Amazon launches comic book imprint Jet City Comics, titles to include George R.R. Martin adaptation

- Amazon is launching its own comic book publishing imprignt called "Jet City Comics"- The first series will features stories by Neal Stephenson, and an adaption of a George R.R. Martin story- Amazon will release digital and print copies of their books- Jet City's focus will be to adapt already successful books in graphic form- Meanwhile BGR has details on the next line of Kindle Fire tablets with each of the devices getting more pixels. Higher res displays for all. The HD versions will get a physical redesign as well. No mention of e-ink versions

Q: With Amazon producing comic books when are we getting a color eink Kindle or is that never happening with the Fire line?

And then you’ll get paid fast by check, PayPal or get an extra 5% with an Amazon gift card.

Gazelle is now buying back a larger selection of tablets. In addition to the iPad, you can now sell to Gazelle -- select Samsung, Google Nexus, Kindle Fire, Microsoft Surface and Asus tablets.

Go to gazelle.com now to get an offer for your Samsung, iPhone, HTC or Blackberry smartphones, iPad or other Apple products - - do it today because your gadgets may lose value every day that you wait.

With Gazelle...

You get paid in cash

Payment is fast, within a few days of the item being received

It’s Risk-Free

Offers are good for 30 days -- giving you time to transfer data or set up your new device.

Gazelle will also wipe your data for free.

It’s Trustworthy

Gazelle has paid $100 million dollars to over 500,000 customers

It’s Easy

Free Shipping -- most items qualify for a free box

Fast process -- no listing hassles

Products to check on the site:

Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-1777 (AT&T)

Samsung Galaxy S III SGH-i535 (Verizon)

iPhone 4 - 16GB (AT&T)

iPhone 4S - 64GB (Verizon)

iPad 3 - WiFi - 32GB

Offer/Call to Action:

What’s your iPhone, Samsung and other Android smartphones worth?

Take a minute and go to gazelle.com to find out.

Sell your used Samsung Galaxy or iPhone today at gazelle.com

***[no other url or promo code] ***

ProXPN

Introduction/Problem:

More than ever, your online freedom and privacy are under threat. Governments and ISPs want to control what you can and cannot see, while keeping a record of everything you do. Plus that “free Wi-Fi” at the coffee house, hotel, and airport is putting you at risk, because your passwords and sensitive data can be intercepted more easily than you might think.

proXPN is a global VPN (virtual private network) that works with almost any internet connection. It creates a secure, encrypted tunnel through which all of your online data passes back and forth. Any online application can work with proXPN—including your web browser, email, file sharing, and instant messaging programs. proXPN keeps everything you do online hidden from prying eyes, disguising your physical location and giving you unfettered access to any website or online service, no matter where you live or travel to.

Talking Points

Complete online privacy through a 512-bit encryption tunnel.

Works via OpenVPN or PPTP. You choose!

● Protect yourself against your ISP’s “six strikes” rule.

● Bypass internet filtering and blocked websites.

● Bypass geographical restrictions for internet content and online video with worldwide servers in the US, UK, Asia, and more!

● proXPN’s software for Windows & Mac offers advanced controls, allowing you to select the programs and ports you want to anonymously route through proXPN’s servers.

● proXPN also works with your iOS or Android device, allowing you to use your data plan or public/corporate Wi-Fi with complete and total privacy on the go. No app required!

World Class customer support

Steve Gibson gave it a great review on Security Now!

Call to Action (Verbatim)

Go to proxpn.com/twit for more information and to sign-up. proXPN premium accounts are normally $9.95 a month or $74.95 for an entire year. We’ve got a special offer: use the code TNT to receive 20% off for the lifetime of your account. That’s less than $5 bucks a month on the yearly plan! If you’re not satisfied, you can cancel within 7 days for a full refund.